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Logan Elm schools will ask district residents to pay higher taxes to replace and remodel the
aged inventory of buildings that serve 2,064 students in parts of Pickaway and Hocking
counties.

The school board voted unanimously yesterday to place a $36.3 million school-construction bond
issue before voters on the Nov. 5 ballot. Voters also will be asked to approve a 1-mill maintenance
levy to replace an expiring 1.2-mill levy.

Approval of the bond-issue request would cost the owner of a $100,000 property an additional
$212 in annual property taxes to pay off the bonds over 37 years. Residents now pay $740 a year in
taxes on a property valued at $100,000.

Under the proposal, a new building to house sixth through 12th grades would be built, with the
district paying 65 percent ($25.6 million) and the Ohio School Facilities Commission paying 35
percent ($13.7 million) of the bill.

The district would spend $10.7 million to renovate the current 50-year-old high school and
40-year-old middle school to house pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade students. All the buildings
would be on a main campus east of Circleville.

If the project wins funding, the district will close four elementary buildings that are nearing
a century in age and are costly to maintain, said Superintendent Tim Williams. Voters rejected
requests for school-construction money in 2001 and 2009.

“This is the first time we’ve looked at a plan that would benefit all students in
pre-kindergarten through 12th grade and allow all our students to be in new or renovated buildings.
I hope the public will see the need and can provide better and more-secure schools,” Williams
said.

State lawmakers’ recent ending of the state-paid portion of local property taxes — 12.55 percent
for an owner-occupied home — for new levies would cost taxpayers about $3 a month in additional
taxes, he said.